What is it like to have an international award at the entrance of the village? | Great Power Technology

What is it like to have a super-large bridge in the village that won the highest international bridge award?

1. The "Sky Bridge" in a small village

There are three bridges in this small village. The first is the Pingli River Bridge, a three-arch stone arch bridge that is "64 years old"; the second is the Pingli River Bridge, a five-arch box girder bridge that is "just in the first grade of primary school" - it is really big, 168 meters long, and is part of the G552 National Highway.

Three-arch stone arch bridge Pingli River Bridge

Source: China Daily

Kong Box Girder Bridge Pingli River Bridge

Source: China Daily

The third one is the super-large bridge mentioned at the beginning - Pingtang Super-Large Bridge. It is the world's largest span three-tower cable-stayed bridge located in a mountainous area, with a total length of 2,135 meters. Its main tower is 332 meters high. Although it is only 2 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower, which was newly lengthened by 6 meters this year (with a new communication antenna installed), it is still a "baby" and is not yet "3 years old" today, which is equivalent to not graduating from nursery school or enrolling in kindergarten.

Pingtang Bridge

Source: China Daily

Eiffel Tower

Source: pixabay

The Pingtang Bridge has been praised as the "Bridge in the Sky" and won the Gustavus Lindthahl Award, the highest award at the 38th International Bridge Conference. It has since become a popular check-in spot for internet celebrities. The local area even built a tourist service area next to the bridge and started the business of integrating bridge and tourism.

This small village called Pinglihe Village, because of its three bridges, has become a vivid example of Guizhou Province's efforts to change the constraints of mountainous topography and landforms, especially in the past decade, by giving priority to transportation, vigorously promoting the construction of the southwestern land transportation hub, and realizing the transformation from "thousands of gullies and ravines" to "high-speed plains."

As the only province in the country without a plain to support it, Guizhou Province's achievements in bridge and tunnel construction over the past decade are a microcosm of the country's achievements in large-scale bridge and tunnel construction and development.

Comparison of major data of national highway bridges and tunnels from 2011 to 2021

Source: Ministry of Transport

2. China's super bridge and tunnel projects

At the same time, the construction of railway bridges and tunnels across the country also accelerated. On June 30, 2011, the Danyang-Kunshan section of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway, the Danyang-Kunshan Bridge, was officially put into operation. The bridge is 164.851 kilometers long and is the longest bridge in the world so far. It is not only a monument of struggle and development, but also a high starting point for the great development of railway bridges and tunnels in the next decade.

High-speed railway bridge and tunnel workers inspect and maintain the beam body and mark the "diseases" inside the box beam of the Danyang-Kunshan Bridge

Source: Xinhua News Agency

By the end of 2019, the operating mileage of my country's high-speed railways exceeded 35,000 kilometers, of which 16,000 kilometers (about 45.2% of the total mileage) were high-speed railway bridges, with a total number of more than 10,000.

In terms of railway tunnels, at the end of 2010, my country had 9,800 railway tunnels with a total length of 7,000 kilometers; by the end of last year, there were 17,532 railway tunnels in operation nationwide, with a total length of 21,055 kilometers, of which 22.65% and 30.74% were high-speed railway tunnels that had been built, and 91 special-long tunnels with a length greater than 10 kilometers, with a total length of 1,141 kilometers.

Development scale of China's railway tunnels in different periods (as of the end of 2020)

Source: "Development and Prospects of China's Railway Tunnels"

Most of the extra-long tunnels in my country with a length of more than 20 kilometers were completed and opened to traffic after 2011. In 2014, the Xinguanjiao Tunnel was opened to traffic. This railway tunnel located in the Xige section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is nearly 33 kilometers long and is still the longest tunnel in China. It is also the longest tunnel in the world's high-altitude areas. The altitude inside the tunnel rises from 3,400 meters to 3,800 meters.

In July this year, the country carried out the first ultra-long plateau tunnel grinding operation, with the grinding vehicle operating in the Xinguanjiao Tunnel.

Source: Xinhuanet

There are many bridges and tunnels with titles like the longest and the largest. It can be said that the history of bridge and tunnel construction in China in the past decade is a history of the development of human bridge and tunnel culture that constantly challenges oneself and dares to innovate and strive for the first place.

Brief introduction to some of the world's best bridges and tunnels built and put into use after 2011

Source: Central government portal website, etc.

3. Technological innovation solves construction problems

So how can a bridge and tunnel project stand out? By doing more technological innovation.

Generally speaking, according to the structural system, bridges include beam bridges, arch bridges, rigid frame bridges, suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges, and combined system bridges. It is easy to stand out by making some "fancy renovations" in the structure.

Schematic diagram of main bridge structure classification

Source: Encyclopedia of China Database

For example, multi-tower structural system bridges (multi-tower cable-stayed bridges, multi-tower suspension bridges), multi-cable plane and multi-main truss bridges (because of uniform force, they are suitable for bridges with large spans, wide bridge decks, live loads, and high train speeds, such as the Shanghai-Nantong Yangtze River Bridge that carries multiple railway lines and highways), and full-section fully welded structures (the plane area of ​​a single lifting unit is about one and a half times the size of a standard basketball court and weighs up to 1,000 tons. In the end, they are assembled one by one to form a bridge).

Erection of the entire section of the Yangsigang Yangtze River Bridge with fully welded steel trusses

Source: "The Latest Progress and Prospects of China's Long-Span Bridges"

In addition, some new materials can be used, such as high-strength bridge steel, high-strength parallel steel wire, high-performance concrete, and high-performance concrete (which has excellent compressive and flexural properties and is suitable as a bridge deck paving material).

At the same time, some mechanical equipment for auxiliary construction is also being updated. The new equipment includes: a self-developed rotary drilling rig with a maximum drilling diameter of 5 meters and a maximum drilling depth of 180 meters; the most advanced multi-purpose offshore vessels "Sanxia Fuchuan" and "Daqiao Fuchuan" in China; underwater construction equipment with outstanding performance in underwater blasting, foundation clearing and leveling; and the large crane ship Daqiao Haiou, which erected the steel beams of the Pingtan Strait Highway-Rail Bridge.

The bridge crane ship Seagull is in operation, with a lifting height of up to 130 meters

Source: "The Latest Progress and Prospects of China's Long-Span Bridges"

In terms of tunnels, the world's most comprehensive and technologically advanced shield machine "Haihong" has been developed. Its diameter reaches 12.26 meters. As an air cushion slurry shield machine, on January 11, 2021, after more than 1,000 consecutive caves, it opened a section of the Dalian Metro Line 5 submarine tunnel, accumulating valuable experience for solving the "world problem" of deep-water underground long tunnels.

The construction project of the Pearl River Estuary Tunnel of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen Railway is famous for its high water pressure and deep burial depth, and is even considered the largest in China. Therefore, people specially built the "Greater Bay Area" shield machine to tackle this "hard bone". The "Greater Bay Area" shield machine has an excavation diameter of 13.32 meters, a total length of 133 meters, and a total weight of 3,900 tons. The "Greater Bay Area" can change the cutter at normal pressure, that is, the staff does not need to change the cutter under a pressurized environment; it has a self-sensing function, and specific data such as the propulsion speed, slurry flow, and cutter head speed can be displayed in detail.

Looking back at the history of bridge and tunnel construction in my country, especially the construction achievements in the past 10 years, it always reminds us of the grandeur and excitement of "a bridge connecting the north and the south, turning the natural barrier into a thoroughfare". It is enough to make us look forward to the faster development of bridge and tunnel construction in the next ten years!